Kathmandu, January 23
The Surya Nepal NPGA Match Play is beginning here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club on Tuesday with No 1 pro Sukra Bahadur Rai taking on 20th ranked Tanka Bahadur Karki.
Top 16 pros in the Order of Merit in the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2021-22 are qualified for the Match Play. As four pros in list are out of the country, the PGA Nepal has considered top 20 for the third event of the current season of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour.
No 4 Niraj Tamang - who is currently in Jamshedpur to participate in the pre-qualifying tournament of Professional Golf Tour of India - is set to miss the Match Play along with 14th ranked Rajendra Thapa Magar, 16th ranked Purna Sharma and 18th ranked Tirtha Paudel, who all are working out of country. No 2 Bhuwan Nagarkoti will play against 19th ranked Sanjok Tamang, while third ranked pro Jayaram Shrestha will face 17th ranked Krishna Man Rajbahak.
Likewise, fifth ranked Rabi Khadka will take on 15th ranked Pradip Kumar Lama, No 6 Sanjay Lama will play against 13th ranked Ramesh Adhikari, and No 7 Dinesh Prajapati will face No 12 Surya Prasad Sharma. Eighth ranked Dhana Bahadur Thapa will take on 11th ranked Bal Bhadra Rai, while No 9 Rame Magar will face No 10 Bhuwan Kumar Rokka in the first round matches.
According to PGA Nepal General Secretary Deepak Acharya, all matches except for the final will be over 18 holes. The finalists will play over 36 holes. Out of the total cash purse of Rs 250,000, the winner will receive Rs 60,000, while the runner-up will earn Rs 42,000. Pros winning third and fourth places will get Rs 32000 and Rs 24,000 respectively. Four losing quarter-finalists will earn Rs 11,000 each, while the eight pros who face defeats in the first round will get Rs 6,000 apiece.
PGA Nepal President Rabindra Man Shrestha thanked Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd for continued support to professional golf. "We could not have reached this stage without the support from Surya Nepal," he said. "The sport is gradually growing and we are hoping for a fierce competition in Match Play," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 24, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
